Don't get in Gillard's way....

you might end up crushed!
http://media.smh.com.au/news/national-news/cameraman-hit-by-pms-fleet-car-3064862.html

Is there an elephanty smell in the room?

Is there an important matter which most high-profile federal members of the ALP have been constantly failing to acknowledge? Kevin Rudd is popular with the voters, while the same cannot be said of much of the rest of the federal ALP team. Rudd at one time was extraordinarily, unprecedentedly popular with the world outside of the ALP. Simon Crean and Julia Gillard as leaders were just about as popular with voters as pork chops at a bar mitzvah. Rudd knows the secret of voter popularity. So many of his critical colleagues don't. Surely the envy and damaged egos of the has-beens and the never-weres who have witnessed spectacular electoral success must be a factor in Rudd's much-discussed unpopularity within his own party.



Source of this image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seriykotik/5458307408/in/set-72157625756142997

I'd like to think that this lovely picture depicts Rudd's onging love affair with Australian voters, the big ugly animal in the room being the resentment of his ALP colleagues.

Rudd resigns from job as foreign minister unrepentant, commentators set to chatter themselves hoarse

Rudd's resignation speech as foreign minister.
Sydney Morning Herald.
February 22, 2012.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/rudds-resignation-speech-as-foreign-minister-20120222-1tnue.html#ixzz1n5s37keV

Cussin' Kevin

I can't stand f***ing swearing!

They are still talking about the Ruddocalypse, after all this time

Did Gillard and her colleagues believe that Rudd and the events of June 2010 would fade from the collective memory and fall back into the pages of history books? Dumb call.

I don't get why it is still such a live question as to when Gillard started planning her coup. Fowler unsuccessfully tried to get an answer out of the PM about some new evidence that she had planned well in advance, destroying the story that she was a party to the coup only as a last resort. It was reported by Patricia Karvelas on the front page of the Oz way back in December 2010 that months before the spill the "faceless man" Don Farrell told the US embassy that Gillard was campaigning for the leadership, according to a Wikileaks diplomatic cable release. I wrote about the lack of apparent impact of this story shortly after it was published. At the time it appeared that the ABC had not reported the story.

The Comeback Kid?
By Andrew Fowler and Peter Cronau
Four Corners
ABCTV
February 10th 2012
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/02/10/3427070.htm

"Julia Gillard 'after top job a year before coup': WikiLeaks"
By Patricia Karvelas
The Australian
December 17, 2010
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-fn59niix-1225972416553
http://www.news.com.au/national/julia-gillard-after-top-job-a-year-before-coup-wikileaks/story-e6frfkvr-1225972601117?from=public_rss

Aussie psychiatrist Prof Ian Hickie at centre of controversy

Psychiatrist claims campaign to discredit him.
The World Today.
ABC Radio National
February 13th 2012
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2012/s3429115.htm

The drug Agomelatine and the medical journal The Lancet are mentioned in this report, subjects that I've written about before in connection with Prof. Hickie.

Also see this recent newspaper article:

Dunlevy, Sue
'Campaign' targets depression guru Ian Hickie.
The Australian.
February 13th 2012.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/campaign-targets-depression-guru/story-e6frg8y6-1226269135293

Quote from this article:

"West Australian Labor MP and anti-ADHD drug campaigner Martin Whitely called on Professor Hickie yesterday to step aside as a mental health commissioner over the row "and if he doesn't (Mental Health Minister) Mark Butler should remove him"."

I recommend the website Speed Up & Sit Still by Martin Whitely as a great place to get all the details of this controversy, which I have written about here in past posts:
http://speedupsitstill.com/

Police threaten Aboriginal protester with a tear gas cannister on 40th anniversary of Aboriginal Tent Embassy

See photos number 5 and 11 in this interesting gallery of press photos.

"A policeman threatens protesters with a tear gas cannister in Canberra. Picture: Lukas Coch / AAP".

Notice how the older Aboriginal-looking man in photo number 15 was shoved aside on a stairway by the cops and security people rushing the PM away from the restaurant? PM's welfare is more important I guess.

This whole debacle was sparked by stupid and ignorant comments about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy made by Tony Abbott. Nice work, Tony! Abbott is clearly a man who cares about nothing and no-one except himself and his own career. He has proven himself over and over again to lack anything like the character that is required to be the leader of any organization, let alone the leader of a nation.

Note to the Prime Minister - Prince Charming does not have your lost shoe, but nevertheless I'm sure it has gone to a nice home.

Protesters trap PM, Tony Abbott.
The Australian.
January 26th 2012.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/australia-day/gallery-e6frgdbo-1226254476537?page=14

Why behind a paywall?

It's such a pity that this old British Medical Journal paper is now hidden behind a paywall, because it was one of the few journal papers by Prof. Patrick McGorry, psychiatrist and former Australian of the Year, in which he disclosed much at all in the section found in most journal papers in which conflicting or competing interests are supposed to be disclosed by the author of the paper. This BMJ paper had an uncharacteristically long disclosure by McGorry. Now you readers will have to just go by what I've written about the disclosure, try to access the paper thru a library or pay to read the paper yourself. So much for freedom of information!

Is early intervention in the major psychiatric disorders justified? Yes.
British Medical Journal. 2008;337doi: 10.1136/bmj.a695
August 4th 2008.
http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a695?tab=full

You know things aren't going well in your medical practice when....

....a shitload of disgruntled ex-patients get together to form themselves into a support group, and a class action lawsuit looks probable. It looks like the misdeeds of the Australian psychiatrist Professor Graham Burrows are finally catching up with him. Why has it taken so long?

I find it rather interesting that Australia has two controversial psychiatrist professors, Dr Graham Burrows and Prof. Patrick McGorry, who have both been the subject of serious ethical objections to their trials of the same drug - Seroquel, which has the proper chemical name of Quetiapine and also goes by other brand names, and is manufactured by the drug company AstraZeneca. According to the Seven News report Burrows was being funded by the manufacturer of Seroquel to trial the drug on eating disorder patients, and Prof. McGorry tried to get a trial of Seroquel as a treatment to prevent the onset of psychosis happening in Australia, but that trial was closed down on ethical grounds after an international collection of health professionals and researchers lodged a formal objection to the trial, known as the NEUROPRO-Q study. Like Burrows McGorry has been the beneficiary of funding or assistance from AstraZeneca, which he has disclosed at least once in a medical journal paper. Another thing the two profs have in common - both Burrows and McGorry have been accused of practicing psychiatry in a way that results in or probably would result in patients being incorrectly diagnosed as schizophrenic. McGorry should take a tip - looking this similar to Dr Graham Burrows is not a good look, and this is true now more than ever!

Class action against Burrows.
reporter Louise Milligan
7News (Melbourne)
January 15th 2012
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/vic/-/watch/27901358/class-action-against-burrows/
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/vic/watch/27901358/

Seroquel XR: 0:28 of advert, 1:02 of horrible side effects!
YouTube
http://youtu.be/vUBjO7J_UpM
[This is an unintentionally hilarious and scary advertisement for the drug Seroquel from the US, in which the disclaimer about serious side effects (which presumably must be added by law) takes up most of the time of the advert.]

Wikipedia contributors (accessed 2012) Quetiapine. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quetiapine&oldid=471222206

I can't understand why Dr/Prof Graham Burrows is still practising medicine

A quote from today's shocking 7News report about the controversial Australian psychiatrist/professor Graham Burrows:

"I can't describe it as anything other than disgusting."

I agree.

Burrows patient used as "guinea pig".
Milligan, Louise
7News.
January 12th 2012
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/sa/watch/27859872/248154/

http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/burrows-patient-used-as-guinea-pig-27859874.html#crsl=%252Fvideo%252Fworld-15749633%252Fburrows-patient-used-as-guinea-pig-27859874.html


and from late last year this report of an incredible bit of conduct:


Mental health charity probe.
McArthur, Grant
Herald Sun.
December 23rd 2011
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/mental-health-charity-probe/story-fn7x8me2-1226228855616


another damning report from 2011:

7News exposes medical scandal

https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/9690341/7news-exposes-medical-scandal/

Serco Ruins Christmas for Children in Detention

What kind of miserable f***s would prevent children from being given gifts at Christmas-time? What kind of power-crazed c*** would forbid children from having coloured crayons or coloured pencils outside of formal classes?

DASSAN Press Release: Serco Ruins Christmas for Children in Detention
Refugee Rights Action Network
5 January 2012.
http://rran.org/blog/2012/01/dassan-press-release-serco-ruins-christmas-for-children-in-detention/

Serco drops ban on coloured pencils and crayons for asylum-seeker children
by Kirsty Needham
Sydney Morning Herald.
January 7, 2012.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/serco-drops-ban-on-coloured-pencils-and-crayons-for-asylumseeker-children-20120106-1pogh.html#ixzz1ilC5Sacc

Serco drops ban on coloured pencils and crayons for asylum-seeker children
Refugee Rights Action Network
7 January 2012.
http://rran.org/blog/2012/01/serco-drops-ban-on-coloured-pencils-and-crayons-for-asylum-seeker-children/

The tent monsters of Occupy Melbourne confound the law

I found this amusing.

Aussie parents could be forced to medicate kids (as has happened in some US states)

Whenever the WA ALP MP Martin Whitely gets a mention on the front page of The Australian, the story is sure to be one that I'll find interesting. In the editorial comment about this story the possible consequence of new NHMRC guidelines on the treatment of ADHD in which Australian parents could potentially be referred to child protection if they refuse to medicate a child diagnosed with ADHD has been compared to the world of Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.

Medicate ADHD kids or else, parents told.
by: Sue Dunlevy
The Australian
November 21, 2011
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/medicate-adhd-kids-or-else-parents-told/story-fn59niix-1226200652633

Commonsense deficit disorder
Editorial
The Australian
November 21, 2011
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/commonsense-deficit-disorder/story-e6frg71x-1226200557444

Another addition to the war of words over early psychosis

GP David Shiers and bipolar disorder expert Prof. Jan Scott, both from the UK, are both quoted in this report in the Weekend Australian, and they both lend support to the vision of early intervention in psychosis that has been promoted by Prof. Patrick McGorry. I have a few comments about the content of this article. Dr Shiers is quoted as claiming that new early intervention services, presumably in the UK, save money by lowering the rate of hospital readmissions. Where's the published study that demonstrates as much? There is no reference to any published study in this newspaper report, so I've got to assume that there isn't one.

Professor Scott's assertion that "...there is no medical disorder in which the outcome is better if you delay treatment" is presented in this article as a supporting argument for McGorry's early intervention program, but it fails, for two reasons. Firstly, it doesn't really address the previously expressed fears of Dr Allen Frances that McGorry's early intervention plans for a condition that is characterised as pre-psychosis will probably misdiagnose young patients who are not genuinely developing cases of psychosis. There is simply no value in intervening early with patients who are not geuninely ill. Secondly, Prof. Scott's assertion fails as a supporting argument because it simply isn't true. I can easily think of medical diseases, disorders and conditions in which the best medical practice is either watchful waiting or delaying treatment for a specified period. Some mild infections are best left untreated but with monitoring if it is not clear that antibiotics are necessary, and I know of at least one birth defect in which self-correction can happen in infancy, and therefore the best medical proctice is to delay surgery till the age at which the chances of spontaneous healing are negligible. I also believe that best medical practice for some cases of prostate cancer might be watchful waiting. Most cases of stuttering (a speech disorder) in early childhood remit spontaneously, and the last time I checked there was virtually nothing in way of credible published evidence that the treatment program used by most speech pathologists works better than no treatment, so the argument for doing nothing, at least in the early years, makes sense. When a medical doctor makes such a questionable and dogmatic statement I believe we should take that as a hint that an interventionist bias combined with an insufficient regard for all of the options and all of the evidence about outcomes could be operating, which is the last thing that we need in the vexed and heated dispute over how to treat Australian youths who may, or may not, be developing a serious mental illness.

At odds over early psychosis.
by: Sue Dunlevy
From:The Australian
November 12, 2011
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/at-odds-over-early-psychosis/story-e6frg8y6-1226191802632